By: Sean Crose

Cletus Seldin returned to the ring on Tuesday night after a nearly two year absence. The 26-1 Seldin’s opponent in the scheduled 8 round junior welterweight affair was the 21-5-2 Patrick Okine. Seldin-Okine was the main event of a Boxing Insider Fight Nights card held at Manhattan’s Sony Theater. Okine looked sharp in the first, landing stinging shots as Seldin tried to push the action. Seldin continued to use his size against Okine in the second, but Okine fired back cleanly. Seldin then took to grappling in order to weigh his man down. Okine ended the round tagging his man.

Seldin landed hard on Okine in the third – but Okine landed hard on him. The fight was becoming a thudding affair. It looked in the fourth that neither man was going to abandon his strategy. Seldin would swat and and maul his opponent, while Okine would sharp shoot his. Seldin was the more aggressive of the two fighters, Okine threw the better punches. Indeed, Okine took to throwing bombs at Seldin in the fifth. And indeed, Seldin received blistering punches in the sixth. Credit had to go to the man, however, for he never stopped moving forward.

And indeed, before the sixth ended, Seldin caught Okine clean. Down Okine went. To his credit, Okine got to his feet. Seldin moved in for the kill, and the referee stopped the fight moments later – though the broadcast team argued that it may have been a bit of an early stoppage. Through a translator, Okine admitted afterward he was surprised and disappointed by the stoppage. Gracious in defeat, he also said he’d like a rematch with Seldin. As for Seldin, he gave Okine copious amounts of credit. He also said he wanted to win for Israel, as well as for himself. Seldin indicated he was beginning a new chapter in his boxing career.

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